SCRUMMAGING power-house Carl Hayman reckons Newcastle Falcons have not even started packing a front-row punch.

Falcons captain Hayman put in another mammoth shift in Sunday’s 14-3 Kingston Park win over Worcester, all the more remarkable given he spent the week’s build-up battling flu.

After not training all week, Hayman hit his version of the office with nothing other than his usual grit and gusto, overseeing a victory of power, if not panache, in horrendous conditions.

Falcons hooker Rob Vickers bagged the game’s only try, with Jimmy Gopperth landing three penalties to seal the deal and hand the Falcons back-to-back Premiership wins.

Rugby director Steve Bates last week hailed the current Newcastle front-row the club’s best since the title-winning 1997-98 season – but Hayman admits there is still much work to be done.

Unsatisfied with Sunday’s front-row effort, despite driving Worcester off the park in several scrums and holding a clear edge up front, Hayman said now is not the time for the players to worry about how good they are.

With England starting their autumn international programme this weekend when they face Australia, Hayman admitted surprise none of the flourishing English Falcons have yet won full international recognition.

Tipping Jon Golding, Micky Young, James Hudson and more besides to make the step-up in good time, Hayman said he is not worried by their absence.

Preparing to push on, Hayman said he wants to help the Falcons achieve a season to be proud of when they can look back at the end of it all.

He said: “I don’t think Sunday was one of our best scrummaging efforts in that area, but we got the job done and that’s the important thing.

“I guess that’s a big call from Batesy, it’s nice that he thinks that but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“We can worry about things like that at the end of the season. Hopefully, we can look back at the end of the year and have some things we can be really proud of.

“There’s a fair bit of water to go under the bridge before then, but ideally we’d like to help guys like Jonny Golding push into the England set-up and get them into that sort of framework.

“That would be excellent for the club, but we’ll just see what happens.

“All we can do is worry about what we can affect, keep working hard and hopefully things like that will come. Patience is key with that if it’s something you want to get to.

“There are a lot of guys in the squad who have the potential, guys like Micky, Jonny, James Hudson and the like.

“From my personal experience it was just about being consistent and working hard.

“It’s a long way for the selectors to come up here and watch our guys.

“I don’t think I’ve seen too many of them around but that’s not really for me to decide.

“If the guys keep playing well they will get recognised soon enough so I don’t see that being a major issue.”